fnsects, 7357 



Obserrnfions on the ' Catalogue of the Lepidopterous Insects in the 

 Museian at the East India House.'' By R. F. Logan, Esq. 



I HAVE read willi much interest Mr. Newman's critique on the 

 * Catalogue of the Lepidopterous Insects in the Museum at the East 

 India House,' and I think everyone must agree with him in regard to 

 the intrinsic merits of the work, as throwing so much valuable light 

 on the transformations of Eastern Lepidoptera ; and also in respect 

 to the zeal and abihly with which the details have been worked out, 

 so as to present it to us in its present form. The plates and details 

 of transformations are invaluable ; and one has only to regret that the 

 eggs, and in every instance the pupae, as well as the cocoons, could 

 not have been represented. Why the eggs of the Lepidoptera should 

 be so entirely ignored as they are, by all modern entomologists, is 

 difficult to explain, since they afford, in many instances, most excel- 

 lent characters of genera, and also of the larger divisions ; and had 

 we sufficient data a system might be built thereon, which might prove 

 quite as good as that based upon the larvae, and in many cases would 

 no doubt prove corroborative of it. 



Such systems, however, if pushed to extremes, must always prove 

 defective, as there is no rule, even in nature, without an exception ; 

 and it is only by carefully weighing the characters derived from the 

 transformations, in connexion with those of the perfect insects, that 

 we can ever hope to arrive at the natural arrangement. Consequently, 

 until we know a vast deal more of the preparatory states of exotic 

 Lepidoptera, we can scarcely hope to solve the mighty enigma of 

 their classification, though every step taken in the right direction 

 places us on surer ground. 



Looking at it in this light, every true naturalist must hail with 

 pleasure the appearance of a book like the present, which, though it 

 may be defective as a whole, yet gives us many steps in the right 

 direction. Stirpes II., V., VI. and VII. are pre-eminently natural 

 divisions of the Bombyces, corresponding almost exactly with the 

 families Liparidae, Attacidae, Limacodidaj and Lasiocampidje. The 



genus Ichthyura (Closlera ), however, comes in unnaturally 



where it is placed, and must be removed from Stirps II,, and placed 

 along with Phalera and Anthena in Section ii. of Stirps IV., as these 

 genera cannot be separated from the rest of the Notodonlidai, not- 

 withstanding the difference in the larvae. 



Stirps I., as Mr. Newman remarks, is composed of materials which 



